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• Improving abysmal 802.11n wireless network

  - by concept

  I am in desperate need of help to improve the abysmal performance of my 802.11n wireless network. At best I get 30Mbs (this is an internet download) from a technology that boasts 300Mbs, even worse is the LAN where to date best i have ever gotten is 1Mbs. It is literally quicker to copy the file to a USB and walk it to the other computer. Infrastructure is this AP 802.11n only broadcasting at both 2.4GHz and 5GHz Mac with 802.11a/b/g/n card is connected to the AP via 5GHz Linux with 802.11a/b/g/n card is connected to AP via 2.4GHz I have conducted the following tests (results at end of post) Internet based speed test wired and wireless LAN file copy wired and wireless I have read: http://nutsaboutnets.com/troubleshooting-wi-fi-problems/ http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-basics/30664-5-ways-to-fix-slow-80211n-- speed http colon //www.wi-fiplanet dot com/tutorials/7-tips-to-increase-wi-fi-performance.html Slow file transfer on network between two 802.11n laptops (connected directly together via access point) Wireless Network Performance Issues Slower than expected 802.11n wireless network speeds I have made the following optimizations AP broadcasts only 802.11n on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies 2.4GHz is on a channel with least interference (live in an apartment with lots of APs), this did make a 10Mb/sec improvement Our AP is the only one transmitting on the 5GHz freq. Security: WPA Personal WPA2 AES encryption Bandwidth: 20MHz / 40MHz (i assume this to be channel bonding) I have tried the following with 0 improvement Dropped the Fragment Threshold to 512 Dropped the Request To Send (RTS) Threshold to 512 and 1 Even thought of buying a frequency spectrum analyzer, until i saw the cost of them!!! Speed test results Linux Wired: DOWNLOAD 128.40Mb/s UPLOAD 10.62Mb/s www dot speedtest dot net/my-result/2948381853 Mac Wired: DOWNLOAD 118.02Mb/s UPLOAD 10.56Mb/s www dot speedtest dot net/my-result/2948384406 Linux Wireless: DOWNLOAD 23.99Mb/s UPLOAD 10.31Mb/s www.speedtest dot net/my-result/2948394990 Mac Wireless: DOWNLOAD 22.55Mb/s UPLOAD 10.36Mb/s www.speedtest dot net/my-result/2948396489 LAN NFS 53,345,087 bytes (51Mb) file Linux Mac NFS Wired: 65.6959 Mb/sec Linux Mac NFS Wireless: .9443 Mb/sec All help is appreciated, even testing methods will be accepted.

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• Is it possible to repair a Cisco 3500 XL (3548) switch with POST Error messages?

  - by Alex

  I've got an old Cisco 3500 XL, and it seems to have hardware issues. I've loaded the latest IOS and cleared all config. Does anyone have any experience fixing the switch core? I'm a reasonably competent SMD solderer, can I replace/reflow some chips? I've checked the power supply voltages and it's all within tolerance, and no visible signs of any component damage. Some chips are hot to the touch. I understand that these were EOL as of 2007, but should have a lifetime warranty for the electronics. I don't have a Cisco support contract, so I can't file a ticket. What should I do? Console output: switch: dir flash: Directory of flash:/ 2 -rwx 1811584 <date> c3500xl-c3h2s-mz.120-5.WC17.bin 1799680 bytes available (1812992 bytes used) switch: boot Loading "flash:c3500xl-c3h2s-mz.120-5.WC17.bin"...################################################################################################################################################################################### File "flash:c3500xl-c3h2s-mz.120-5.WC17.bin" uncompressed and installed, entry point: 0x3000 executing... Restricted Rights Legend Use, duplication, or disclosure by the Government is subject to restrictions as set forth in subparagraph (c) of the Commercial Computer Software - Restricted Rights clause at FAR sec. 52.227-19 and subparagraph (c) (1) (ii) of the Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software clause at DFARS sec. 252.227-7013. cisco Systems, Inc. 170 West Tasman Drive San Jose, California 95134-1706 Cisco Internetwork Operating System Software IOS (tm) C3500XL Software (C3500XL-C3H2S-M), Version 12.0(5)WC17, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1) Copyright (c) 1986-2007 by cisco Systems, Inc. Compiled Tue 13-Feb-07 15:04 by antonino Image text-base: 0x00003000, data-base: 0x00352924 Initializing C3500XL flash... flashfs[1]: 1 files, 1 directories flashfs[1]: 0 orphaned files, 0 orphaned directories flashfs[1]: Total bytes: 3612672 flashfs[1]: Bytes used: 1812992 flashfs[1]: Bytes available: 1799680 flashfs[1]: flashfs fsck took 3 seconds. flashfs[1]: Initialization complete. ...done Initializing C3500XL flash. C3500XL POST: System Board Test: Passed C3500XL POST: Daughter Card Test: Passed C3500XL POST: CPU Buffer Test: Passed C3500XL POST: CPU Notify RAM Test: Passed C3500XL POST: CPU Interface Test: Passed C3500XL POST: Testing Switch Core: Passed Error with Switch Core BIST test Phase 0. Returns: Test Complete Low : 0x0FFFFFFF, Test Complete High : 0xFFFFFFFE Test Phase Low : 0x00000040, Test Phase High : 0x00000000 Test Phase Third : 0x00000000, Test Complete Third : 0x000001F8 C3500XL POST FAILURE: Testing Switch Core: Failed C3500XL POST FAILURE: Testing Buffer Table: Failed C3500XL POST FAILURE: Data Buffer Test: Failed C3500XL POST FAILURE: Configuring Switch Parameters: Failed C3500XL POST FAILURE: Switch Core BIST failed. C3500XL POST FAILURE: Cannot test Modules due to failure of Switch Core POST Del Mar Failure (0th Del Mar): req system failed to init C3500XL POST FAILURE: C3500XL POST FAILURE: ATM: required system failed to init C3500XL POST: Ethernet Controller Test: Passed C3500XL POST FAILURE: MII Test: Failed C3500XL POST FAILURE: Error waiting for Ethernet Controller and SW_PARAMS C3500XL POST FAILURE: Initialization/POST failed C3500XL POST FAILURE: AT: Failing because system POST failed Exception (8192)! Debug Exception (Could be NULL pointer dereference) CPU Register Context: Vector = 0x00002000 PC = 0x000F36F4 MSR = 0x00029200 CR = 0x22000024 LR = 0x000F6964 CTR = 0x001DE46C XER = 0x00000000 R0 = 0x00000000 R1 = 0x004E2580 R2 = 0x00000000 R3 = 0x00000000 R4 = 0x00000001 R5 = 0x00000000 R6 = 0x004E2718 R7 = 0x004E2718 R8 = 0x00000008 R9 = 0x00000000 R10 = 0x0000FFFF R11 = 0x00480000 R12 = 0x42000024 R13 = 0x00000000 R14 = 0x00000000 R15 = 0x00000000 R16 = 0x00000000 R17 = 0x00000000 R18 = 0x00000000 R19 = 0x00000000 R20 = 0x00000000 R21 = 0x00000000 R22 = 0x00000000 R23 = 0x00000000 R24 = 0x00000000 R25 = 0x00000020 R26 = 0x004E2718 R27 = 0x004E2718 R28 = 0x00000020 R29 = 0x00002513 R30 = 0x00000001 R31 = 0x00000000 Stack trace: PC = 0x000F36F4, SP = 0x004E2580 Frame 00: SP = 0x004E25A0 PC = 0x40000016 Frame 01: SP = 0x004E2618 PC = 0x000F6964 Frame 02: SP = 0x004E26A8 PC = 0x000F76DC Frame 03: SP = 0x004E26C8 PC = 0x000E8114 Frame 04: SP = 0x004E26F0 PC = 0x001F5BF8 Frame 05: SP = 0x004E2710 PC = 0x001F5CF4 Frame 06: SP = 0x004E2748 PC = 0x0023F4DC Frame 07: SP = 0x004E2750 PC = 0x0023E650 Frame 08: SP = 0x004E27C8 PC = 0x0023E89C Frame 09: SP = 0x004E27E0 PC = 0x0028AF34 Frame 10: SP = 0x004E27E8 PC = 0x001E38F8 Frame 11: SP = 0x004E2808 PC = 0x001E39A8 Frame 12: SP = 0x004E2820 PC = 0x0014E220 Frame 13: SP = 0x004E28C8 PC = 0x0014E39C Frame 14: SP = 0x00000000 PC = 0x001EB510

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• 32bit SQLServer with AWE NOT enabled. Buffer Cache Hit Ratio High, Disk Read Queue VERY HIGH, WHY?

  - by chenwq

  We have a "SQLServer 2005 SP3 32bit Enterprise Edition" running on a 32 bit Windows 2003 32bit Enterprise Edition 12GB RAM with AWE enabled using RAID5(5 pysical disks). We tuned AWE to enabled and restart sqlserver this afternoon after work, hope the performance will be better than old time. But there is something that we are very confused. On working days, SQLServer has a very bad performance. When we are looking for reasons, we check Windows Performance counter. Avg. Disk Read Queue Lenght > 140 Avg. Disk Write Queue Length < 1 SQL Server Buffer Cache Hit Ratio > 96% %Processor Time < 30% SQL Server Total Server Memory < 1.8G Obviously, without AWE enabled, SQL Server can use only less than 2G memory. My Question is: why "SQL Server Total server Memory" is less than 2G?I think SQL Server will use all 2G process address space. Does this counter count anything out? we known that sql server is sufferring lack of memory, but why "buffer hit ratio“ is as high as 96? Any advice is welcomed!

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• Hardware, network infrastructure for runnng gaming server nd on VirtualGL

  - by archer

  Foud nice project VirtualGL (http://www.virtualgl.org/). Tried to run 3D fames (EVE Online, Prototype) on server and display the output on thin client using 100Mbps network. Server: Gentoo Linux on AMD Phoenom II x6 3.4Gz, 8GB RAM, 2x NVIDIA 9800 GTX in single session with display resulution 1024x768 on client. Performance is very promising. Going to increase network speed to 1Gbps (using either Ethernet or Fiber) and run 5-6 clients simultenously. My questions are: a) what would be better for network - 1Gbps Ethernet or Fiber (clients are distributed in max 20m around server)? Is that a must to use managed switch for better network performance? b) Should I increase number of video cards to put in SLI on server (going to use Gigabyte GA-890FXA-UD7 which has 6 PCIExpress slots [2 x4, 2 x8 and 2 x16]). Will it impact performance significantly. If I need to increase the number of video cards - what would be better - put 2 banks of video cards with 3 in bank using SLI, or 3 banks with 2 in the bank? Would linux recognize that and properly use all banks of video cards? c) any suggestions on good thin clients supporting 1920x1080 HDMI video and 1Gbps network I understand that my questions can't be answered clearly (unless someone already managed to use this kind of stuff ;)) although any suggestions would be very helpful.

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• Improving IO with FlashCache

  - by Devator

  I have a server with 2 HDD's (2x 1 TB), running in RAID 1 (SW-RAID). I want to improve IO performance by using flashcache. There are running KVM virtual machines on it, using LVM. Regarding this, I have the following questions: Will this even work? flashcache works for block devices, however these are all virtual machines with their own setup. How much would I expect to increase performance? Most virtual machines run websites and some host games. How big does the SSD needs to be? Would having a bigger SSD increase performance since it's able to cache more files? What happens if the SSD dies? Would flashcache retrieve files from the traditional HDD and I could simply replace the SSD? How much faster would writeback be in comparison with writethrough and writearound? I have no access to a test system unfortunately, so could I install flashcache on a live server without unmounting the the disks? I found a great tutorial here which I would be using.

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• Current wisdom on SQL Server and Hyperthreading?

  - by BradC

  Lots of articles out there (see Slava Oks's original SQL 2000 article and Kevin Kline's SQL 2005 update) recommend disabling hyperthreading on SQL servers, or at least testing your specific workload before enabling it on your servers. This issue is gradually becoming less relevant as true multi-core processors replace hyperthreaded ones, but what's the current wisdom on this issue? Does this advice change any with SQL 2005 64-bit, or SQL 2008, or Windows Server 2008? Ideally, this should be tested in advance in a staging environment, but what about for servers that have already made it into production with HT enabled? How can I tell if performance issues we're experiencing might be related to HT? Is there some specific combination of perfmon counters that might point me in that direction, as opposed to all the other things I normally pursue when working on improving SQL performance? Edit: This is especially attractive because of the potential for an across the board improvement for some of my high-cpu servers, but the client is going to want to see something concrete that helps me identify which servers really could benefit from disabling hyperthreading. Of course, conventional performance troubleshooting is ongoing, but sometimes any little bit helps.

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• BIOS setting: AHCI or RAID (when using SSD + 2x HDD in RAID-0)

  - by nixdagibts

  Hello there, I want to add a new SSD and use it as system drive with Win7 x64 installed. As driver I chose newest Intel Rapid Storage driver (not MSAHCI). I know that I have to use AHCI as BIOS setting for optimal SSD read/write performance. But I'm also using 2 normal HDDs as separate RAID-0 SSD: Win7 HDD: RAID-0 HDD: RAID-0 If I set my BIOS on my ASUS P5W DH Deluxe to AHCI, my RAID-0 cant be recognized And If im using RAID as setting, maybe my SSD has not its top speed. But I'm not sure about that. In short: AHCI no RAID-0 RAID no optimal SSD performance (?) Now my question: Can I use RAID as BIOS setting and be sure, that theres no decrease in SSD performance? Google finds so many articles with similar topics and my head is just exploding. Two examples: - set AHCI and after installing OS switch to RAID as BIOS setting... what? - use a diskette and F6 while installing win7... really? O.o I thought those times are gone

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• Optimizing Disk I/O & RAID on Windows SQL Server 2005

  - by David

  I've been monitoring our SQL server for a while, and have noticed that I/O hits 100% every so often using Task Manager and Perfmon. I have normally been able to correlate this spike with SUSPENDED processes in SQL Server Management when I execute "exec sp_who2". The RAID controller is controlled by LSI MegaRAID Storage Manager. We have the following setup: System Drive (Windows) on RAID 1 with two 280GB drives SQL is on a RAID 10 (2 mirroed drives of 280GB in two different spans) This is a database that is hammered during the day, but is pretty inactive at night. The DB size is currently about 13GB, and is used by approximately 200 (and growing) users a day. I have a couple of ideas I'm toying around with: Checking for Indexes & reindexing some tables Adding an additional RAID 1 (with 2 new, smaller, HDs) and moving the SQL's Log Data File (LDF) onto the new RAID. For #2, my question is this: Would we really be increasing disk performance (IO) by moving data off of the RAID 10 onto a RAID 1? RAID 10 obviously has better performance than RAID 1. Furthermore, SQL must write to the transaction logs before writing to the database. But on the flip side, we'll be reducing both the size of the disks as well as the amount of data written to the RAID 10, which is where all of the "meat" is - thereby increasing that RAID's performance for read requests. Is there any way to find out what our current limiting factor is? (The drives vs. the RAID Controller)? If the limiting factor is the drives, then maybe adding the additional RAID 1 makes sense. But if the limiting factor is the Controller itself, then I think we're approaching this thing wrong. Finally, are we just wasting our time? Should we instead be focusing our efforts towards #1 (reindexing tables, reducing network latency where possible, etc...)?

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• Implications of disabling the AMD Phenom's TLB patch?

  - by DMA57361

  I'm currently running a AMD Phenom X4 9600 processor (yeah, it's aging a bit, but other recent problems mean it's not getting upgraded in the immediate future), which happens to be one of the chips that suffer from the TLB errata. I recall that the first time I played with disabling the TLB patch (probably over a year ago, while playing a game that had a severe performance problem such that it was almost unplayable unless the patch was disabled) I had at least one BSOD, but I can't remeber them being particularly frequent. However, because it decreased instability, I stopped disabling the patch once I was done with the game. Now, after some recent hardware changes I was experiancing much worse performance than expected from the new hardware under some circumstances, and the TLB jumped to mind - after testing I found that disabling the patch would improve the performance to expected levels. I'm now wondering if it's worthwhile always having the patch disabled to avoid any potential slowdowns cropping up in the future, or if it is too dangerous. Everything I read states that the bug, when not patched, can causes a system lock-up in "rare circumstances". So, with the TLB patch disabled: How frequently should system lock-ups be expected? Do we know what the circumstances that trigger the lock-ups are? (Don't worry too much about being highly technical, but essentially I wonder if the chip more vunerable under heavy load, or heavy memory usage, etc?) Are there any secondary problems I should be aware of? (Don't include things that are charateristic to all lock-ups, please)

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• How to Eliminate Tape Backup and Off-site Storage Service?

  - by Daniel Lucas

  PLEASE READ UPDATE AT THE BOTTOM. THANKS! ;) Environment Info (all Windows): 2 sites 30 servers site #1 (3TB of backup data) 5 servers site #2 (1TB of backup data) MPLS backbone tunnel connecting site #1 and site #2 Current Backup Process: Online Backup (disk-to-disk) Site #1 has a server running Symantec Backup Exec 12.5 with four 1TB USB 2.0 disks. BE jobs for full backups run nightly on all servers in site #1 to these disks. Site #2 backs up to a central file server there using software they already had when we purchased them. A BE job pulls that data nightly to site #1 and stores them on said disks. Off-site Backup (tape) Connected to our backup server is a tape drive. BE backs up the external disks to tape once a week which gets picked up by our off-site storage company. Obviously we rotate two tape libraries, one is always here and one is always there. Requirements: Eliminate the need for tape and off-site storage service by doing disk-to-disk at each site and replicating site #1 to site #2 and vice versa. Software based solution as hardware options have been too pricey (ie, SonicWall, Arkeia). Agents for Exchange, SharePoint, and SQL. Some Ideas So Far: Storage DroboPro at each site with an initial 8TB of storage (these are expandable up to 16TB at present). I like these because they are rackmountable, allow disparate drives, and have iSCSI interfaces. They are relatively cheap too. Software Symantec Backup Exec 12.5 already has all the agents and licenses we need. I'd like to keep using it unless there is a better solution, similarly priced, that does everything BE does plus deduplication and replication. Server Because there is no more need for a SCSI adapter (for tape drive) we are going to virtualize our backup server as it is currently the only physical machine save for SQL boxes. Problems: When replicating between sites we want as little data as possible to go across the pipe. There is no deduplication or compression in what I have laid out here so far. The files being replicated are BE's virtual tape libraries from our disk-to-disk backup. Because of this each of those huge files will go across the wire every week because they change every day. And Finally, the Question: Is there any software out there that does deduplication, or at least compression, to handle just our site-to-site replication? Or, looking at our setup, is there any other solution that I am missing that might be cheaper, faster, better? Thanks. Sorry so long. UPDATE 2: I've set a bounty on this question to get it more attention. I'm looking for software that will handle replication of data between two sites using the least amount of data possible (either compression, deduplication, or some other method). Something similar to rsync would work but it needs to be native to Windows and not a port involving shenanigans to get up and running. Prefer a GUI based product and I don't mind shelling out a few bones if it works. Please, answers that meet the above criteria only. If you don't think one exists or if you think I'm being to restrictive keep it to yourself. If after seven days there is no answer at all, so be it. Thanks again everyone. UPDATE 2: I really appreciate everyone coming forward with suggestions. There is no way for me to try all of these before the bounty expires. For now I'm going to let this bounty run out and whoever has the most votes will get the 100 rep points. Thanks again!

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• How can I format an SD card with a more robust Linux-usable filesystem with a specific cluster size for better write performace?

  - by Harvey

  Goal: microSD card formatted... for best write performance for use only with embedded Linux for better reliability (random power failures may occur) using an 64kB cluster size I'm using an 8GB microSD card for data storage inside an embedded Linux/ARM device. The SD card is not removable. I've been using ext3 instead of the pre-installed FAT32 because it seems to better handle random power failures during writes. However, I kept noticing that my write performance is always best with the pre-installed FAT32 from Kingston. If I reformat the card with FAT32, the performance still suffers. After browsing wikipedia, I stumbled upon the following comment saying that some cards are optimized for specific cluster sizes. In my case, the Kingston comes pre-formatted for an 64kB cluster size. Risks of reformatting Reformatting an SD card with a different file system, or even with the same one, may make the card slower, or shorten its lifespan. Some cards use wear leveling, in which frequently modified blocks are mapped to different portions of memory at different times, and some wear-leveling algorithms are designed for the access patterns typical of the file allocation table on a FAT16 or FAT32 device.[60] In addition, the preformatted file system may use a cluster size that matches the erase region of the physical memory on the card; reformatting may change the cluster size and make writes less efficient.

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• Painless deployment of a Django app (port from Drupal). Do I have to switch to a VPS?

  - by Monden

  I'm about to complete porting my Drupal based community site to Django. My Drupal site is hosted at a shared hosting (Dreamhost) for last 4 years, and stability & performance has been satisfactory. The site gets around 5k unique visitors with 70-80k page views a day. This will be my first deployment of a Django application and I'm not comfortable with managing my own VPS. I use Ubuntu as a dev. server, but I don't have experience with it at the production env. I have an unrelated internal CRM app (Django) that I host with Webfaction. However security and performance isn't an issue as it's only accessed by 5 people. Unfortunately, I don't have much time to learn and maintain a VPS at this moment. I would like to know if I can host a site with this much traffic at Webfaction's shared environment? How would performance differ in comparison to Linode or Slicehost? Google AppEngine isn't an option at the moment as I'll be using my current Postgresql database.

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• virtual machines, dual booting and data disks on SSD

  - by stevemarvell

  This is in planning, so if I've got the strategy wrong, please let me know. There are multiple questions here, but I think they all degenerate to the same answers. The hardware is a laptop with a single SSD. I'm trying to not lose the performance of the SSD. I plan a native dual booting Windows (plus cygwin) and Linux machine which is my BYOD and represents the development environment. I keep the codebase on a shared partition (though sometimes this is an external thunderbolt SSD) which can be natively "mounted" by whichever OS is in operation. I boot into one or the other environments depending on the task in hand. Sometime I have to develop with windows tools, but generally, Linux is my preferred development environment. It would be ideal if I could VM the other OS and run either in either. I'm going to assume, because I've not found a sensible VM based solution, that I have get samba involved to share the code partition between VMs. Is this going to blow my SSD performance in the VM? The client also supplies me with a VM for the target environment, usually linux. This is not often suited to development and is used for testing only. I normally keep two copies of this, one as a sandbox and one which I deploy to using the client's preferred method. I keep these VM snapshots on the shared partition. The latter is interacted with over the network and so has no disk sharing requirements. However, it would be useful for the sandbox to be able to "mount" the code base from the natively running OS. Is this samba or nfs again, depending on the native OS? Am I missing a trick which allows this to all work smoothly with all four environments running at once without loosing the SSD performance?

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• Curious enigma of a network cable / connection / quality

  - by Foo Bar

  So, the situation is like this: I'm renting an apartment in a large house and I'm sharing internet with the landlord who lives downstairs. The internet is (in my best guess) optical 20/20Mbit. I don't know how it's all wired in his flat (haven't been there / seen it). Anyway, in my flat comes a cable which seems to be connected directly to the optic to ethernet router (and the password is the default one, so I have access, he he). There was a switch connected to that and to wires that go around the flat, and the wiring is terrible. It's even mixing phone and ethernet, and from what I see some cables are even interconnected!? Anyways, this cable that comes to my flat is very short. I can barely connect my computer on it, but if I do, I seem to get decent speed / performance. Not great, but decent. If, however, I connect switch to it (tried 2 different switches and a wifi switch) it's all blinking but I can't even connect to 192.168.1.1 (the router). DHCP fails, ping is losing 80-100% of replies. So I connected this cable directly to the other cable which goes to my work room, with a connector that has two female jacks and no electronics. Now when I connect my computer in my room, again, the performance is decent. When I connect WRT54GL (with tomato, DHCP disabled) to it and I plug a cable in this WRT and to my computer... the performance is gone. Download seems okay on Speedtest, but upload is .2Mbps and it's connecting forever. So what kind cable troll am I having here? Any ideas?

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• What does SQL Server's BACKUPIO wait type mean?

  - by solublefish

  I'm using Sql Server 2008 ("R1"), with some maintenance plans that back up my databases to a network share. Some of my backup jobs show long waits of type "BACKUPIO". Of course it seems like this is an I/O subsystem limitation, but I'm skeptical. Perfmon stats for I/O on the production (source) server are well within normal trends for that server. The destination server shows a sustained 7MB/s write rate, which seems incredibly low, even for a slow disk. The network link is gigabit ethernet and nowhere near saturated. The few docs I've turned up about BACKUPIO indicate that it's not specifically a wait on I/O, surprisingly enough. This MSFT doc says it's abnormal unless you're using a tape drive, which I'm not. But it doesn't say (or I don't understand) exactly what resource is missing. http://www.docstoc.com/docs/24580659/Performance-Tuning-in-SQL-Server-2005 And this piece says it's not related to I/O performance at all. http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=686168&seqNum=5 "Note that BACKUPIO and IO_AUDIT_MUTEX are not related to IO performance." Anyway, does anyone know what BACKUPIO actually means and/or what I can do to diagnose or eliminate it?

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• Blogging: MacJournal & Windows Live Writer

  - by Jeff Julian

  One thing I have learned about using a Mac is that Apple does not produce very many free applications. The ones they do are typically not full featured and to get the full feature you need to buy their upgraded version. For example, when it comes to Photo editing and cataloging, iPhoto is not a solution for large files or RAW processing, you need Aperture which is a couple hundred dollars. I am not complaining because I like it when an application has a product team who generates revenue with it, because the chance of them being around longer seems to be higher. What is my point in all of this? Apple does not produce a product for blogging/journaling like Microsoft does with Windows Live Writer. I love Windows Live Writer. If you are on a Windows box, it is a required tool in your toolbox if you publish to a blog. The cleanness of the interface, integration with most blog APIs and ability to Save Local or Publish as a Draft make capturing your thoughts for publishing now or later a very easy task. My hope is that Microsoft will port it to the Mac, but I don’t believe that will ever happen as it is not a revenue generating product and Microsoft doesn’t often port to a Mac besides Remote Desktop Connection and MSN Messenger. For my configuration I used to use only Boot Camp on my two MacBook Pros I have owned in the past three years because I’m a PC, but after four different rebuilds (not typically due to Windows, but Boot Camp or Parallels) I decided to move off the Boot Camp platform and to VMWare Fusion. This is a complete separate blog post that I should spec out in MacJournal, but I now always boot into the Mac OS and use Fusion for my AJI Software VM or my client’s VMs. It just seems to work better for me and I have a very nice way to backup my Windows environments with VMWare.Needless to say, there was need in my new laptop configuration for a blogging tool that worked natively on a Mac. I don’t like to power up my machine for writing a document or working on an image and need to boot up a VM just so I can use Windows. Some would say why not just use a Windows laptop and put the MBP on eBay? It is just a preference and right now, I like the Mac OS for day to day work. So in comes MacJournal, part of the current MacHeist package for $19.95 (MacJournal is normally $39.95). This product is definitely not WLW, but WLW is missing some features I like in MacJournal. I hope the price point comes down on MacJournal cause I could see paying $19.95 for it, but it is always hard for me to buy a piece of software for $39.95 when I can use something else. But I am a cheapskate when it comes to software packages. I suggest if you are using a Mac to drop what you are doing pick up the MacHeist bundle today before it is over, but if you are reading this later, than download the trial and see if MacJournal is a solution for you. If you have any other suggestions that are as nice or cheaper, please comment.Product LinksMacJournal by Mariners Software $39.95 (part of MacHeist bundle for $19.95 with only one day left)Windows Live Writer by MicrosoftThis post was created using MacJournal.[Update: The joys of formatting. Make sure if you are a Geekswithblogs.net member that you use this configuration to setup the Metablog formatting of paragraphs correctly]

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• Add Microsoft Core Fonts to Ubuntu

  - by Matthew Guay

  Have you ever needed the standard Microsoft fonts such as Times New Roman on your Ubuntu computer?  Here’s how you can easily add the core Microsoft fonts to Ubuntu. Times New Roman, Arial, and other core Microsoft fonts are still some of the most commonly used fonts in documents and websites.  Times New Roman especially is often required for college essays, legal docs, and other critical documents that you may need to write or edit.  Ubuntu includes the Liberation alternate fonts that include similar alternates to Times New Roman, Arial, and Courier New, but these may not be accepted by professors and others when a certain font is required.  But, don’t worry; it only takes a couple clicks to add these fonts to Ubuntu for free. Installing the Core Microsoft Fonts Microsoft has released their core fonts, including Times New Roman and Arial, for free, and you can easily download these from the Software Center.  Open your Applications menu, and select Ubuntu Software Center.   In the search box enter the following: ttf-mscorefonts Click Install on the “Installer for Microsoft TrueType core fonts” directly in the search results. Enter your password when requested, and click Authenticate. The fonts will then automatically download and install in a couple minutes depending on your internet connection speed. Once the install is finished, you can launch OpenOffice Writer to try out the new fonts.  Here’s a preview of all the fonts included in this pack.  And, yes, this does included the infamous Comic Sans and Webdings fonts as well as the all-important Times New Roman. Please Note:  By default in Ubuntu, OpenOffice uses Liberation Serif as the default font, but after installing this font pack, the default font will switch to Times New Roman. Adding Other Fonts In addition to the Microsoft Core Fonts, the Ubuntu Software Center has hundreds of free fonts available.  Click the Fonts link on the front page to explore these, and install the same as above. If you’ve downloaded another font individually, you can also install it easily in Ubuntu.  Just double-click it, and then click Install in the preview window. Conclusion Although you may prefer the fonts that are included with Ubuntu, there are many reasons why having the Microsoft core fonts can be helpful.  Thankfully it’s easy in Ubuntu to install them, so you’ll never have to worry about not having them when you need to edit an important document. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Enable Smooth fonts on Ubuntu LinuxEmbed True Type Fonts in Word and PowerPoint 2007 DocumentsNew Vista Syntax for Opening Control Panel Items from the Command-lineStupid Geek Tricks: Enable More Fonts for the Windows Command PromptAdding extra Repositories on Ubuntu TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Awe inspiring, inter-galactic theme (Win 7) Case Study – How to Optimize Popular Wordpress Sites Restore Hidden Updates in Windows 7 & Vista Iceland an Insurance Job? Find Downloads and Add-ins for Outlook Recycle !

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• Systems Solutions at COLLABORATE12

  - by ferhat

  Want to connect with fellow Oracle users and learn more about how to maximize your Oracle software environments with Oracle Systems?   Pack your bags for Las Vegas!   COLLABORATE 12  is right around the corner! COLLABORATE 12 Conference will be held at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, NV 22-26 April, 2012. This is an event designed and delivered by users just like you with sessions, interactive panel discussions and hands-on learning opportunities packed with first-hand experiences, case studies and practical “how-to” content.. This year’s event includes a number of educational sessions and demos for users interested in learning from the experts how to use Oracle Optimized Solutions to get the most out of their Oracle Technology and Application software. Oracle Optimized Solutions are proven blueprints that eliminate integration guesswork by combing best in class hardware and software components to deliver complete system architectures that are fully tested, and include documented best practices that reduce integration risks and deliver better application performance.  And because they are highly flexible by design,  Oracle Optimized Solutions   can be implemented as an end-to-end solution or easily adapted into existing environments. Follow Oracle Infrared at Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn  to catch the latest news, developments, announcements, and inside views from  Oracle Optimized Solutions. Please come by our Exhibition Booth #1273 to see the demos and meet 1-1 with the experts behind a number of  Oracle Optimized Solutions  including those for JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft HCM, Oracle WebCenter, and Oracle Database.  Exhibitor Showcase Booth #1273 DAY TIME TITLE Monday  April 23 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm Welcome Reception in the Exhibitor Showcase Tuesday  April 24 10:15 am - 4:00 pm Exhibitor Showcase Open 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm Dedicated Exhibitor Showcase Time 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm Exhibitor Showcase Happy Hour Wednesday  April 25 10:30 am - 3:00 pm Exhibitor Showcase Open 2:15 pm -3:00 pm Afternoon Break in Exhibitor Showcase  There are also a number of deep dive, educational sessions covering deployment best practices using Oracle’s engineered systems and best-in-class hardware, operating system and virtualization technologies.  Education Sessions DAY TIME TITLE LOCATION Monday  April 23 9:45 am - 10:45 am Architecting and Implementing Backup and Recovery Solutions Surf E Tuesday  April 24 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm Oracle's High Performance Systems for JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Mandalay Bay GH 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm Virtualization Boot Camp: What's New with Oracle VM Server for x86 Mandalay Bay C 9:30 am - 10:30 am Oracle on Oracle VM - Expert Panel Mandalay Bay L Wednesday  April 25 9:30 am - 10:30 am Cloud Computing Directions: Part II Understanding Oracle's Cloud Directions South Seas E  And don’t forget the keynotes and software roadmap sessions! Keynotes and Roadmap Sessions DAY TIME TITLE LOCATION Sunday  April 22 3:20 pm – 4:20 pm Oracle’s Cloud Computing Strategy Breakers B Monday  April 23 11:00 am – 12:00 pm JD Edwards - Vision, Promises and Execution: IT'S THE WAY WE ROLL and Why it Matters! Mandalay Bay A 11:00 am – 12:00 pm PeopleSoft Executive Update and Roadmap Mandalay Bay J 1:15 pm - 2:15 pm Oracle Database - Engineered for Innovation Mandalay Bay L 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm Oracle E-Business Suite Applications Strategy and General Manager Update Mandalay Bay D Tuesday  April 24 9:15 am - 10:15 am IT at Oracle: The Art of IT Transformation to Enable Business Growth Mandalay Bay Ballroom H

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• Install GIMP 2.7.1 on Lucid Lynx using PPA

  - by Vivek

  GIMP lovers are going to be disappointed to hear that GIMP is going away in the next release of much awaited Ubuntu 10.04. Today we take a look at installing in on Lucid Lynx using PPA. The reason for getting rid of it as cited by the GIMP developers, is that GIMP is too professional a software to be included in regular desktop version of Ubuntu. And it takes up too much of space on the disk. Also, the fact that it’s too complicated for regular users. If you can’t live without it…let’s see how to install GIMP 2.7.1 on Lucid Lynx (Currently in Alpha). The new version of GIMP supports single window mode and we will also see how to enable this feature as well. First we need to add the official GIMP 2.7.1 PPA in the software sources of Ubuntu 10.04, by opening the terminal window and typing the following command: sudo sh -c “echo ‘deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/matthaeus123/mrw-gimp-svn/ubuntu lucid main’ >> /etc/apt/sources.list” Now that we have added the PPA we need to add the GPG key, so type the following in your Terminal window. sudo apt-key adv –recv-keys –keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 405A15CB Next up we have to update the software repository… sudo apt-get update All that is left is to install GIMP 2.7.1 by typing in the following… sudo apt-get install gimp Click ‘Y’ (for yes) to install GIMP Once GIMP is installed you can start it by going to Applications > Graphics > GNU Image Manipulation Program. You now have your favorite GIMP on your favorite Ubuntu 10.04. As you can see in the image below, GIMP still comes with default 3 windows, which could clog up your lower panel In Ubuntu 10.04. However, now you can run GIMP in single window mode by going to Windows > Single-Window mode. That’s all! Now you have your GIMP running in single window mode with less of hassle to manage 3 windows. It’s unfortunate that GIMP will not be included, but by following these instructions, you’ll be able to enjoy using it in Ubuntu 10.04. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Show the List of Installed Packages on Ubuntu or DebianHow to Install Windows Applications on Linux Using CrossoverInstall VMware Tools on Ubuntu Edgy EftInstall Adobe PDF Reader on Ubuntu EdgyInstall MySQL Server 4.1 on Ubuntu TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Stretch popurls.com with a Stylish Script (Firefox) OldTvShows.org – Find episodes of Hitchcock, Soaps, Game Shows and more Download Microsoft Office Help tab The Growth of Citibank Quickly Switch between Tabs in IE Windows Media Player 12: Tweak Video & Sound with Playback Enhancements

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• Innovative SPARC: Lighting a Fire Under Oracle's New Hardware Business

  - by Paulo Folgado

  "There's a certain level of things you can do with commercially available parts," says Oracle Executive Vice President Mike Splain. But, he notes, you can do so much more if you design the parts yourself. Mike Splain,EVP, OracleYou can, for example, design cryptographic accelerators into your microprocessors so customers can run their networks fully encrypted if they choose.Of course, it helps if you've already built multiple processing "cores" into those chips so they can handle all that encrypting and decrypting while still getting their other work done.System on a ChipAs the leader of Oracle Microelectronics, Mike knows how implementing clever innovations in silicon can give systems a real competitive advantage.The SPARC microprocessors that his team designed at Sun pioneered the concept of multiple cores several years ago, and the UltraSPARC T2 processor--the industry's first "system on a chip"--packs up to eight cores per chip, each running as many as eight threads at once. That's the most cores and threads of any general-purpose processor. Looking back, Mike points out that the real value of large enterprise-class servers was their ability to run a lot of very large applications in parallel."The beauty of our CMT [chip multi-threading] machines is you can get that same kind of parallel-processing capability at a much lower cost and in a much smaller footprint," he says.The Whole StackWhat has Mike excited these days is that suddenly the opportunity to innovate is much bigger as part of Oracle."In my group, we used to look up the software stack and say, 'We can do any innovation we want, provided the only thing we have to change is what's in the Solaris operating system'--or maybe Java," he says. "If we wanted to change things beyond that, we'd have to go outside the walls of Sun and we'd have to convince the vendors: 'You have to align with us, you have to test with us, you have to build for us, and then you'll reap the benefits.' Now we get access to the entire stack. We can look all the way through the stack and say, 'Okay, what would make the database go faster? What would make the middleware go faster?'"Changing the WorldMike and his microelectronics team also like the fact that Oracle is not just any software company. We're #1 in database, middleware, business intelligence, and more."We're like all the other engineers from Sun; we believe we can change the world, if we can just figure out how to get people to pay attention to us," he says. "Now there's a mechanism at Oracle--much more so than we ever had at Sun."He notes, too, that every innovation in SPARC has involved some combination of hardware and softwareoptimization."Take our cryptography framework, for example. Sure, we can accelerate rapidly, but the Solaris OS has to provide the right set of interfaces that applications can tap into," Mike says. "Same thing with our multicore architecture. We have to have software that can utilize all those threads and run in parallel." His engineers, he points out, have never been interested in producing chips that sell as mere components."Our chips are always designed to go into systems and be combined with various pieces of software," he says. "Our job is to enable the creation of systems."

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• Book Reviews: Art of Community and Eyetracking Web Usability

  - by ultan o'broin

  Holidays time offers a chance to catch up on some user experience and user assistance related material. So, two short book reviews (which I considered using my new Tumblr blog for. More about that another time) coming up. The Art of Community by Jono Bacon Excellent starting point for anyone wanting to get going in the community software (FLOSS, for example) space or understand how to set up, manage, and leverage the collective intelligence of communities for whatever ends. The book is a little too long in my opinion, and of course, usage of what Jono is recommending needs to be nuanced and adapted for enterprise applications space (hardly surprising there is a lot about Ubuntu, Lug Radio, and so on given Jono's interests). Shame there wasn't more information on international, non-English community considerations too. Still, some great ideas and insight into setting up and managing communities that I will leverage (watch out for the results on this blog, later in 2011). One section, on collaborative writing really jumped out. It reinforced the whole idea that to successful community initiatives are based on instigators knowing what makes the community tick in the first place. How about this for insight into user profiles for people who write community user assistance (OK then, "doc") and what tools they might use (in this case, we're talking about Jokosher): "Most people who write documentation for open source software projects would fall into the category of power user. They are technology enthusiasts who are not interested in the super-technical avenues of programming, but want to help out. Many of these people have good writing skills and a good knowledge of using the software, so the documentation fit is natural. With Jokosher we wanted to acknowledge this profile of user. As such, instead of focussing on complex text processing tools, we encouraged our documentation contributors to use a wiki." The book is available for free here, and well as being available from usual sources. Eyetracking Web Usability by Jakob Nielsen and Kara Prentice Another fine book by established experts. I have some field experience of eyetracking studies myself --in the user assistance for enterprise applications space--though Jakob and Kara concentrate on websites for their research here. I would caution how much about websites transfers easily to the applications space, especially enterprise applications, as claimed in the book too. However, Jakob and Kara do make the case very well that understanding design goals (for example, productivity improvement in the case of applications) and the context of the software use is critical. Executing a study using eyetracking technology requires that you know what you want to test, can set up realistic tasks for testing by representative testers, and then analyze the results. Be precise, as lots of data will be generated (I think the authors underplay the effort in analyzing data too). What I found disappointing was the lack of emphasis on eyetracking as only part of the usability solution. It's really for fine-tuning designs in my opinion, and should be used after other design reviews. I also wasn't that crazy about the level of disengagement between the qualitative and quantitative side of this kind of testing that the book indicated. I think it is useful to have testers verbalize their thoughts and for test engineers to prompt, intervene, or guide as necessary. More on cultural or international aspects to usability testing might have been included too (websites are available to everyone). To conclude, I enjoyed the book, took on board some key takeaways about methodologies and found the recommendations sensible and easy to follow (for example about Forms layouts). Applying enterprise applications requirements such as those relating to user profiles, design goals, and overall context of use in conjunction with what's in this book would be the way to go here. It also made me think of how interesting it would be to compare eyetracking findings between website and enterprise applications usage.

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• SQL SERVER – Top 10 “Ease of Use” Features of expressor Studio

  - by pinaldave

  expressor Studio is new data integration platform that is being marketed as the most easy to use tool of its kind.  But “easy to use” can be a relative term – an expert can find a very complex system easy, but a beginner might be stumped.  A recent article online discussed exactly what makes expressor Studio so easy use, and here is my view on this subject. Simple Installation There is one pop-up for one .exe file, and nothing more.  You can’t get much simpler than this.  It is also in the familiar Windows design, so there should be no surprises. No 3rd party software dependency Have you ever tried to download software, only to be slowed down by the need to download a compatible system to run the program, and another to read the user manual, and so on?  expressor Studio was designed specifically to avoid this problem. Microsoft Office Like Ribbon Bar and Menus As mentioned before, everything is in the familiar Windows design, from the pop up windows to the tool bars and menus.  There should be no learning curve for using this program, or even simply trying to navigate around a new system. General Development Design Interface This software has been designed to be simple and straightforward.  Projects can be arranged in a simple “tree” design, that is totally collapsible and can easy be added to or “trimmed” with a click of a button.  It was meant to be logical and easy to follow. Integrated Contextual Help This is a fancy way of saying that you can practically yell “help!” if you do get stuck on something.  Solving a problem is as simple as highlighting and hitting F1 for contextual help. Visual Indicators and Messages Wouldn’t it be nice to know exactly where something has gone wrong before trying to complete a project.  expressor Studio has a built in system to catch mistakes and highlight them in a bright color, flash a warning message, and even disable functions before you can continue – and possibly lose hours of work. Property Inputs and Selectors Every operator will have a list of requirements that need to be filled in.  But don’t worry; you won’t have to make stuff up to fill in the boxes.  Each one will have a drop-down menu with options to choose from – but not too many as to be confusing. Connection Wizards Configuring connections can be the hardest part of a project.  But not with the expressor Studioconnection wizard.  A familiar, Windows-style menu will walk you through connections so quickly you’ll forget what trouble it used to be. Templates With large, complex projects, a majority of your time is often spent simply setting up the files and inputting data.  But expressor Studio allows you to create one file and then save it as a template, saving you hours of boring data input. Extension Manager Let’s say that you need a little more functionality or some new features on your program. A lot of software requires you to download complex plug-ins that need to be decompressed and installed.  However, expressor Studio has extended its system to an Extension Manager, which allows for quick and easy installation of the functionality you need, without the need to download and decompress. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL Utility, T SQL, Technology

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• View Mobile Websites in Windows with Safari 4 Developer Tools

  - by Matthew Guay

  Want to try out mobile websites designed for the iPhone and other mobile devices on your PC?  Safari 4 for Windows lets you do this easily with their developer tools. By default, Safari will show standard desktop websites.  But by making a simple change, you can switch it to work like Safari Mobile on the iPhone or iPod Touch. Getting Started First make sure you have Safari 4 for Windows installed.  You can download Safari directly (link below) and install it as usual.   Or if you already have another Apple program installed, such as QuickTime or iTunes, then you can install it from Apple Software update.  Simply enter apple software update in the Start menu search box. And then select Safari 4 from the list of new software available.  Click Install to automatically download and install Safari. Accept the license Agreement, and then Safari will automatically install. Once this is finished, Safari will be ready to use. View Mobile Sites in Safari First, we need to enable the developer tools.  Click the gear icon on the toolbar, and select Preferences. Click the Advanced tab, and then check the box that says “Show Develop menu in menu bar”. Once you’ve closed your settings box, click the page icon, select Develop, then User Agent, and then choose one of the Mobile Safari settings.  In our test we chose Mobile Safari 3.1.2 – iPhone. To make your browser emulate a mobile device better, you can hide the bookmarks and tab bar to have a more streamlined interface. Click the Gear icon, and select “Hide Bookmarks Bar”, and then repeat and click “Hide Tab Bar”. You can also shrink your window to be closer to the size of a mobile device screen.  Once you’ve done these things, Safari should look similar to this screenshot.  Here we have loaded Google.com, and you can see it in its iPhone-style interface. Simply enter any website into the address bar, and it will load in its mobile interface if it has one.  Here is Google’s other mobile offerings, right inside Windows. Gmail loads messages with the default iPhone interface. One especially interesting mobile site is Apple’s online iPhone User Guide.  When loaded in Safari with the iPhone setting, it loads with a very nice mobile UI that works just like an iPhone app.  In fact, you can even click and drag to scroll, just like you would with your finger on an iPhone. Conclusion Even if you do not have a Smartphone, you can still preview what websites will look like on them with this trick. Not all sites will work of course, but it’s fun to play around with different sites that have mobile versions. Links: Safari 4 Download Apple iPhone online user guide Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Make Safari Stop Crashing Every 20 Seconds on Windows VistaCustomize Safari for Windows ToolbarSave Screen Space by Hiding the Bookmarks Toolbar in Safari for WindowsEdit Text in a Webpage with Internet Explorer 8Keep Websites From Using Tiny Fonts in Safari TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Windows Media Player 12: Tweak Video & Sound with Playback Enhancements Own a cell phone, or does a cell phone own you? Make your Joomla & Drupal Sites Mobile with OSMOBI Integrate Twitter and Delicious and Make Life Easier Design Your Web Pages Using the Golden Ratio Worldwide Growth of the Internet

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• Don&rsquo;t Kill the Password

  - by Anthony Trudeau

  A week ago Mr. Honan from Wired.com penned an article on security he titled “Kill the Password: Why a String of Characters Can’t Protect Us Anymore.” He asserts that the password is not effective and a new solution is needed. Unfortunately, Mr. Honan was a victim of hacking. As a result he has a victim’s vendetta. His conclusion is ill conceived even though there are smatterings of truth and good advice. The password is a security barrier much like a lock on your door. In of itself it’s not guaranteeing protection. You can have a good password akin to a steel reinforced door with the best lock money can buy, or you can have a poor password like “password” which is like a sliding lock like on a bathroom stall. But, just like in the real world a lock isn’t always enough. You can have a lock, security system, video cameras, guard dogs, and even armed security guards; but none of that guarantees your protection. Even top secret government agencies can be breached by someone who is just that good (as dramatized in movies like Mission Impossible). And that’s the crux of it. There are real hackers out there that are that good. Killer coding ninja monkeys do exist! We still have locks on our doors, because they still serve their role. Passwords are no different. Security doesn’t end with the password. Most people would agree that stuffing your mattress with your life savings isn’t a good idea even if you have the best locks and security system. Most people agree its safest to have the money in a bank. Essentially this is compartmentalization. Compartmentalization extends to the online world as well. You’re at risk if your online banking accounts are linked to the same account as your social networks. This is especially true if you’re lackadaisical about linking those social networks to outside sources including apps. The object here is to minimize the damage that can be done. An attacker should not be able to get into your bank account, because they breached your Twitter account. It’s time to prioritize once you’ve compartmentalized. This simply means deciding how much security you want for the different compartments which I’ll call security zones. Social networking applications like Facebook provide a lot of security features. However, security features are almost always a compromise with privacy and convenience. It’s similar to an engineering adage, but in this case it’s security, convenience, and privacy – pick two. For example, you might use a safe instead of bank to store your money, because the convenience of having your money closer or the privacy of not having the bank records is more important than the added security. The following are lists of security do’s and don’ts (these aren’t meant to be exhaustive and each could be an article in of themselves): Security Do’s: Use strong passwords based on a phrase Use encryption whenever you can (e.g. HTTPS in Facebook) Use a firewall (and learn to use it properly) Configure security on your router (including port blocking) Keep your operating system patched Make routine backups of important files Realize that if you’re not paying for it, you’re the product Security Don’ts Link accounts if at all possible Reuse passwords across your security zones Use real answers for security questions (e.g. mother’s maiden name) Trust anything you download Ignore message boxes shown by your system or browser Forget to test your backups Share your primary email indiscriminately Only you can decide your comfort level between convenience, privacy, and security. Attackers are going to find exploits in software. Software is complex and depends on other software. The exploits are the responsibility of the software company. But your security is always your responsibility. Complete security is an illusion. But, there is plenty you can do to minimize the risk online just like you do in the physical world. Be safe and enjoy what the Internet has to offer. I expect passwords to be necessary just as long as locks.

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• Cross platform application revolution

  - by anirudha

  Every developer know that if they make a windows application that they work only on windows. that’s a small pity thing we all know. this is a lose point for windows application who make developer thing small means only for windows and other only for mac. this is a big point behind success of web because who purchase a operating system if they want to use a application on other platform. why they purchase when they can’t try them. that’s a thing better in Web means IE 6 no problem IE 6 to IE 8 chrome to chrome 8 Firefox to Firefox 3.6.13 even that’s beta no problem the good website is shown as same as other browser. some minor difference may be can see. the cross platform application development thinking is much big then making a application who is only for some audience. the difference between audience make by OS what they use Windows or mac. if they use mac they can’t use this they use windows they can’t use this. Web for Everyone starting from a children to grandfather. male and female Everyone can use internet.no worrying what you have even you have Windows or mac , any browser even as silly IE 6. the cross platform have a good thing that “People”. everyone can use them without a problem that. just like some time problem come in windows that “some component is missing click here to get them” , you can’t use this [apps] software because you have windows sp1 , sp2  sp3. you need to install this first before this. this stupidity mainly comes in Microsoft software. in last year i found a issue on WPI that they force user to install another software when they get them from WPI. ex:- you need to install Visual studio 2008 before installing Visual studio 2010 express. are anyone tell me why user get old version 2008 when they get latest and express version. i never try again their to check the issue is solved or not. a another thing is you can’t get IE 9 on windows XP version. in that’case don’t thing and worrying about them because Firefox and Chrome is much better. the stupidity from Microsoft is too much. they never told you about Firebug even sometime they discuss about damage tool in IE they called them developer tool because they are Microsoft and they only thing how they can market their products. you need to install many thing without any reason such as many SQL server component even you use other RDBMS. you can’t say no to them because you need a tool and tool require a useless component called SQL server. i never found any software force me to install this for this and this for this before install me. that’s another good thing in WEB that no thing require i means you not need to install dotnet framework 4 before enjoy facebook or twitter. may be you found out that Microsoft's fail project Window planet force you to get silverlight before going their. i never hear about them. some month ago my friend talked to me about them i found nothing better their. Wha’t user do when facebook force user to install silverlight or adobe flash or may be Microsoft dotnet framework 4. if you not install them facebook tell  you bye bye tata ! never come here before installing Microsoft dotnet framework 4. the door is open for you after installing them not before. the story is same as “ tell me sorry before coming in home” as mother says to their child when they do something wrong. the web never force you to do something for them. sometime they allow you to use other website account their that’s very fast login for you. because they know the importance of your time.

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